The present invention relates to an air purifier, and more particularly, to an air purifier, of which the plug is rotatably fitted to the main housing.
Air purifiers takes many forms such as a common large one, which is positioned on the floor and has a wire used for connecting the motor to the power supply, and a small-sized one, which has a plug directly connected to the main housing without the use of a wire. Because the wire of the common air purifier is likely to cause people to trip over it accidentally and the air purifier would take too much space in the house, the small-sized one is getting more and more popular.
Referring to FIG. 6, a conventional small-sized air purifier has a main body 1, an air outlet grille 12, a filtering net 11, a motor 21, a fan 22, a rear housing 2 and a power plug 3.
The air outlet grille 12, and the filtering net 11 are secured to the front of the main body 1. The motor 21 is also secured to the main body 1, and is connected to the fan 22 from a rotatable shaft (not numbered). The rear housing 2 is joined to the rear side of the main body 1.
The power plug 3 includes a pair of copper strips 35 and 36, a shaft 30, a casing consisting of two half parts 31 and 32, and a pain of conductors 33 and 34. The copper strips 35 and 36 are joined to the shaft 30, and the half parts 31 and 32 of the casing are connected to each other to house the shaft 30 therein with two ends of each of the copper strips 35 and 36 sticking out therefrom. Referring to FIG. 7, the casing is rotatably received in a chamber 23 of the rear housing 2, and the conductors 33 and 34 are secured to the bottom wall of the chamber 23; the conductors 33 and 34 each has a straight portion projecting into the rear housing 2 so as to be electrically connected to the motor 21. The conductors 33 and 34 each further has a conductive portion 331 and 341 abutting the bottom wall of the chamber 23, the conductive portions 331 and 341 are each formed with an L-shape to get into contact with one of the copper strips 35 and 36.
The motor 21 can be activated when the outer ends of the copper strips 35 and 36 are plugged into the power socket; thus, air can be forced to travel through the net 11 to be purified. The casing joined to the copper strips 35 and 36 can be turned relative to the rear housing 2 before the copper strips 35 and 36 are plugged into the socket, so as to permit the position of the air purifier to be adjusted according to the need. However, referring to FIGS. 8 and 9, the range of the adjustment is limited to an angle of about 90xc2x0, i.e. when the power plug 3 is turned clockwise from the position of FIG. 8, it must not be turned for more than 90xc2x0, otherwise the copper strips 35 and 36 each will get into contact with both of the L-shaped conductive portions 331, 341 of the conductors 33 and 34 to cause a shortcircuit. Therefore, the air purifier is not ideal from the view point of safety.
Therefore, it is a main object of the present invention to provide an air purifier, of which the power plug can be rotated to any position without the risk of causing a shortcircuit.
The air purifier has a motor, a fan, a main body, a rear housing, and a filtering net like the one in the Background, and is provided with a power plug of the present invention.
The power plug includes a rotatable member and a pair of conductive members. The conductive members have ring-shaped portions concentrically arranged in a chamber of the housing, and have straight portions projecting into the housing form the ring-shaped portions so as to be electrically connected to the motor. The rotatable member is rotatably received in the chamber, and has a pair of copper strips, which stick out at outer ends for connection with a power socket, and which constantly touch a respective one of the ring-shaped portions from inner ends in the rotation of the rotatable member.
Thus, the air purifier can be turned to any orientation relative to the copper strips without the risk of causing a shortcircuit.